Shows
& Events
Ashburton
Forks Railway Open Day 2019
On
the weekend of May 11th & 12th in conjunction with Wheels Week
we opened up the Railway to the Public to raise money for the
Balamban Primary School in the Philippines. The weekend was a
great success with ove 250 adults & 150 kids viewing the
Railway. We had our OO scale layout operating as well, my whole
family were roped in for the weekend with a couple of close
friends helping out running trains. We had one track power on the
main line with a battery following to give 2 train running, in the
shed the new shuttle was going with the loco yard working along
with a shunt going onto the main. So plenty of movement &
sound going on.

Above
Left; The OO layout was an added atraction & interest due
to the size difference to the kids & bought back alot of
memories for some adults. Above Right; One of the visiting
European battery trains doing the rounds. Below Left; The
Railway Crossing gave a great chance for young & old to
interact with the trains. Below Right; Another highlight
& talking point was the Circus Train which ran all day on the
Saturday and was rostered on in the shed on the Sunday.


Above;
So many Heart warming sights over the weekend with the kids
smiling from ear to ear.
We
would like to take this chance to thank all those who visited us
over the weekend & hoped you enjoyed the Railway, with the
positive coments & feedback we hope to do it all again in the
summer. I have also had word from the school & the money
raised has bought shoes, socks, uniforms, stationary, art
supplies, pens and other schooling items for the 45 new 1st year
students starting this year. So once again on behalf of the
Balamban Primary School Thank You All very much for making this
happen..... :-)

Tinwald
School Wheels Week Model Show May 2014
Late
afternoon on 16th of May 2 of us G-Scalers & my 2 daughters
set up a display track for the Tinwald Schools Wheels Week Model
display ready for the Saturdays Show, we had trains running in
under 3 hours which included cleaning the track. The event was to
raise money for the school with a gold coin donatiion to get in,
there were all sorts of models on display & was well worth a
look. There was a steady stream of people through in the 5 hour
display & there is talk of making it a 2 day event next year.
As usual the pack up was alot quicker with the 2 hours but the
event was well worth the effort with the looks on kids faces &
even some parents faces when they asked certain questions about
the hobby!!

Above
Left; The finished result after 3 hours of setting up!!! The
outer circuit was American, Middle was European & Inner was
Thomas!!! Above Right; Some of the diecast tractors on
display, there was also alot of Catapiller equipment of different
scales too!

Above
Left; Thomas proved popular as ever! I must mention that all
the pictures were taken by my daughters 6 & 7 yrs old. Above
Right; Looking toward the door with war gaming table in the
fore ground & lego, racing cars etc on the back table.

Above;
Just a general view of the layout! Toward the back you can see the
engine shed up on its end to show the inside detail.

Timaru
Train Show July 2013
On
the 20th & 21st of July some of AFRs rolling stock headed
south to Timaru for there Biannual Train show. I was running as
part of the Christchurch Garden Railway Society display. (Guess
who forgot there camera! All the following photos are taken by
Glen Anthony, thanks Glen).

Above
Left; A fantastic display of lego, this I believe takes hours
to set up, it is always a hit with the kids.
Above
Right; One of the smallest scales on display is this T Gauge
layout, this was the scale that was pictured on Ab 730's running
board (bottom of page).

Above
Left; N Scale has a strong following in Timaru here is a great
European example. Above Right; Our display took 3 circuits
with passing loops on each with the odd siding. We had a good
selection by our members with American, European, Circus &
thomas with his friends. Thomas & Friends were popular with
the kids as always but this time we had a circus train doing the
rounds which really created alot of interest.

Above
Left; There she sits'Ja1268', she had Thomas & friends
running rings round her the whole weekend.
Above
Right; Looking back the other way, in all we all had a very
enjoyable weekend.

Above
Left; A N scale quarry on the corner of a large layout. Above
Right; Glen Anthonys 'The Stamping Ground Gn15 Layout operated
by a couple of club members'. This is a fantastic layout with a
lot going on in it! More can be seen here http://www.trainweb.org/nzgr/Gn15/Gn15.html
it is really worth a look!!

AFR
Hosts the December 2012 CGRS Meeting
Ashburton
Forks Railway was the December destination for the Christchurch
Garden Railway Society members Monthly meeting, we started at 11am
& concluded at 4pm. The day was perfect for the running of
trains, with a great selection set to run the rails here is a
selection of only a few!!

Above
Left; From the smallest a MDC Little Hustler lines up with a
rake of mining hoppers to do a circuit this looked the part
disappearing behind the plants & re-appearing a couple of
metres further along the track. Above Right; To the
Biggest an Aristo-Craft 2-8-2-2-8-2 Mallet the biggest loco to
ever run on AFR rails this to was a impressive site with a rake of
Bachmann wooden reefers & hoopers in tow, on board was a
Phoenix Sound system which really added to the realism.

Above
Left; One of high-lites of the day was the Fiat Twin Set
Railcar finally making an appearance on the Railway, I have seen
this run on so many other railways & at last it was our
turn!!! Above Right; White Pass was the theme of the day
with this make up of all White Pass Rolling stock powering around
the track.

Above
Left; A NZR Tr battery controlled loco with train visiting us
again appearing around the corner with some of the higher
plantings as a back drop. Above Right; "White
Pass" was a theme for the day & a call went out to
members to bring the LGB Alco if they had one so we could attempt
to get as many as possible running in one go. Here is the result,
6 Alcos on the move around the garden, what a site! It would have
been 7 if I had put Dg2330 on!!! After all she did start out as an
Alco until the day it met the 'HACKSAW'.
The
day was a success with alot of members bringing there partners
& kids which resulted in a great family atmosphere being
created, Thanks to all that attended to make this happen!
2012
NZ Garden Railway Convention Visits AFR!
The
Ashburton Forks Railway was lucky enough to host the 2012 NZ
Garden Railway Convention as a layout visit, we planned to run
Scratch Built & Freelance for the afternoon. We were lucky
with the weather a sunny day of 26 degrees one of the warmest this
summer!! Visitors arrived about 3.30-ish, once everyone arrived a
welcome & history of the railway talk was given, then the
trains were run.

Above
Left; The welcome talk, visitors came from far North as
Auckland & South as Mosgiel. One Chap bought a electronic
measuring device which he tow behind a loco, so the offical
distance of the line is 110.6 metres!! Above Right & Below
Left; Wellington modeller John Robinson bought his Dubs A
down, so the Dubs A's meet again!! Below Right; Rogers Q17
is seen here on the mainline following the Dubs A Special.

I
must thank Glen Anthony & John Robinson for the Convention
photos, as I forgot to take pictures yet again!!

The
Plains Railway 40th Anniversary!
The
AFR was approached by the Plains to put on a working display
featuring of course Thomas & Friends for their big weekend.
With help from Andy & borrowing a bit more track to fill the
area I think we succeeded. We had a double track oval with a
passing loop on each track, the outer was longer on which we ran
NZR & USA trains with the inner being Thomas all weekend. We
also had a small radius oval down one end which ran 0-4-0's &
small wheel based stock. Andy used his Life-Like Rail-Road
crossing with operating lights & crossing arms, this proved a
hit with the kids, with them just laying there watching them go up
& down! The Palmers also gave us some scratch built signals
& station a platform to use on the weekend. It was a great
turn out, with everyone showing a great deal of interest for the
size of the trains & of course that blue engine &
friends!!! Thanks to all those that helped us put on a good
display.

Above
Left; Looking towards 1 of
the entrances where at the far end was a display table with NZR
models on, work table to the right in the middle & another
display table with European-USA models on. Note the crossing in
the foreground first time I had ever seen one working & was
impressed by it & so were the kids! Above Right;
Looking the other way with the station being the point of interest
in the middle! You may also note the people-barriers which AFR had
constructed previous month!!

Christchurch
Train Show October 2011
On
the 8th & 9th of October AFR was on the move once again this
time North to Christchurch the car was full with the Thomas Range
to keep the kids amused & A62 with NZR snow plow. It was a
similar set up to Timaru but a passing loop & siding was added
to the inner Thomas track. As usual Thomas stole the attention of
the younger generation hopefully attracting a few more to the
hobby!

Above;
The two A's unite!! John Robinson looks on at the locos.
The
highlight for me was meeting up with another Dubs A maker who
hails from Wellington, he has made a great job of this loco in the
style of New Zealand bush tram way/logging! More on this meet up
in the {Picture
Gallery} section.

Above
Left; Thomas passing James with a USA Trains GP-30 in the
background. Above Right; Myself & John comparing
building methods used in constructing our A locos!

Timaru
Train Show July 2011
On
the 30th & 31st of July some of AFRs rolling stock headed
south to Timaru for there Biannual Train show. I was running as
part of the Christchurch Garden Railway Society display, Ab730
& F72 with a train of NZR rolling stock were displayed (Ran
for an hour before the doors opened) but the main attraction as
far as the kids go was Thomas, Percy & James. Members of the
club ran double track circuit with there trains & Thomas &
Friends were running on a seperate one insde the double circuit.
One wee boy & her mother were sitting watching for at least 4
hours, was great to see all the young ones taking an interest.

Above
Left; Saturday 30th. Selection of rolling stock on display
& running form club & AFR. Above Right; Hopefully
some up & comming modellers to the hobby looking on!!

Above
Left; Sunday 31st. A special 1 hour run before the doors
opened, F72 at the head of her train passing Ab730 getting ready
for her run. Above Right; Ab & F double heading
for a photo run by. What these pictures don't show is the 4 or 5
other exhibitors laying on the floor getting pictures & saying
"run these all day & leave Thomas in the siding!"
but we have to listen to our up & comming modellers, the Kids.

Above;
Here is an unusual shot of my 1:24 Ab730 & sitting on her
running board is 5 coaches in T Gauge, I believe it is half the
size of Z gauge. This small stuff if fully functional & runs
on track with a gauge of 3mm between the rails compared to my
45mm, simply amazing.

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